1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a system and method for the delivery of regional citrate anticoagulation (RCA) to extracorporeal blood circuits.
2. Background Art
Continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) is a form of extracorporeal blood treatment (EBT) that is performed in the intensive care unit (ICU) for patients with acute renal failure (ARF) or end-stage renal disease (ESRD), who are often hemodynamically unstable with multiple co-morbidities. In a specific form of CRRT, continuous veno-venous hemofiltration (CVVH) (FIG. 1), blood is pumped through a hemofilter and uremic toxin-laden plasma ultrafiltrate is discarded at a rate of 1-10 liters per hour (convective removal of solutes). An equal amount of sterile crystalloid solution (replacement fluid, CRRT fluid) with physiological electrolyte and base concentrations is simultaneously infused into the blood circuit either before the hemofilter (pre-dilution) or after the hemofilter (post-dilution) to avoid volume depletion and hemodynamic collapse. From a theoretical and physiological point of view, when run continuously for 24 hours per day, CVVH is the closest of all available renal replacement therapy (RRT) modalities today to replicating the function of the native kidneys. Most experts in the field believe that it should be the preferred treatment modality for unstable patients with renal failure. Nevertheless, 90% of RRT in the ICU is performed as intermittent hemodialysis (IHD), sustained low efficiency dialysis (SLED), or sometimes as continuous veno-venous hemo-diafiltration (CVVHDF). Common to all of these latter methods of RRT is that the removal of most solutes is predominantly by the process of diffusion from blood plasma through the membrane of the hemofilter into the dialysis fluid. Diffusion is less efficient in the removal of larger solutes than convection and therefore, from a theoretical standpoint, CVVH is a superior method of RRT.
The most important reason for the limited use of CVVH in the ICU is that anticoagulation is mandatory to prevent clotting of the extracorporeal circuit in 24-hour treatments. Systemic anticoagulation has an unacceptable rate of major bleeding complications and cannot be done safely. Similarly, extracorporeal blood treatments including plasmapheresis, plasma adsorption on specialized columns, blood banking procedures, lipid apheresis systems, plasma adsorption-based endotoxin removal, treatment with a bioartificial kidney device that contains live renal tubular cells, or with a liver replacement therapy circuit also require powerful regional anticoagulation. Regional citrate anticoagulation has emerged as a possible solution to the clinical problem of circuit clotting.
Citrate (or the quickly buffered citric acid) is present in the human plasma as the trivalent negative citrate anion. This ion chelates ionized calcium in the plasma resulting in a single negative Ca-citrate complex and in low free ionized calcium levels. Since the coagulation cascade requires free ionized calcium for optimal function, blood clotting in the extracorporeal blood circuit (EBC) can be completely prevented by an infusion of citrate into the arterial (incoming) limb of the EBC. When the blood is passed through the extracorporeal processing unit, the anticoagulant effect can be fully reversed by the local infusion of free ionized calcium into the venous (return) limb of the EBC. Therefore, theoretically, regional citrate anticoagulation can be both very powerful and fully reversible without systemic (intra-patient) bleeding tendencies.
Regional citrate anticoagulation has been performed for more than 20 years. Nevertheless, all currently described regional citrate anticoagulation methods are labor intensive and complex with the ICU nurse administering several potentially very dangerous IV infusions in the circuit and/or in central venous lines with frequent laboratory measurements and prescription adjustments. Physician errors in prescription and nursing errors in administration can quickly lead to major complications, and even to death. Due to its well-documented dangers, regional citrate anticoagulation has not gained wide use in clinical practice. The recognized dangers of RCA include hypernatremia; metabolic alkalosis; metabolic acidosis; hypocalcemia 1 (due to net calcium loss from the patient); hypocalcemia 2 (due to systemic citrate accumulation); rebound hypercalcemia (due to release of calcium from citrate after CVVH is stopped); hypophosphatemia; fluctuating levels of anticoagulation; nursing and physician errors; ionized hypomagnesemia; declining filter performance; trace metal depletion; access disconnection; wrong connection of citrate, calcium infusions, and/or of the blood circuit to the patient; and accidental disconnection of the citrate or calcium infusion.